Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795–1866: Protean Man for a Protea ...

Chapter 1

Educating Stockton

Four Generations of Leaders

By the time Robert Field Stockton was born on August 20, 1795, three generations of Stockton firstborn sons had used the legal profession to become prominent political leaders in New Jersey. In the first generation, Robert's great-grandfather, John Stockton, had been one of the first presiding judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Somerset County before the Revolution. In the second generation, Richard Stockton was a judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court, as well as a member of the King's Council for New Jersey. Yet when the Revolution started, Richard Stockton threw his lot in with the patriots and was elected a member of the Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. In the third generation, Robert's father, also a Richard Stockton, was elected as a senator during George Washington's administration, as a presidential elector in the Electoral College (twice), and as a congressman during the War of 1812. However, he failed in three attempts to be elected governor of New Jersey (1801, 1803, and 1804).¹⁸